If you’ve followed my work for any amount of time, you’ve heard me use the phrase Customer-centric Marketing. It’s a phrase that sounds familiar enough that most people assume they understand it. In practice, almost no one does.

The most common mistake—and it’s nearly universal—is confusing Customer-centric Marketing with customer service. Faster replies. Better onboarding. More empathy. Nicer emails. Polished tone. Stronger NPS scores.

Those things matter. But they are not Customer-centric Marketing.

Customer-centric Marketing is not about being nicer to your customers. It’s about restructuring your business so your customers do the marketing for you—not because you asked them to, but because it benefits them to do so.

That distinction changes everything.

The Marketing Blind Spot No One Wants to Admit

Most executives, CMOs, and founders were trained in a world where marketing meant broadcasting. Campaigns. Schedules. Content calendars. Channels. Funnels. Attribution models that assume the brand is the primary engine of attention.

That worldview no longer reflects reality.

Today, attention is not owned by brands. It’s owned by people. And the companies winning right now are not the ones shouting the loudest—they’re the ones that created environments where people want to be visible.

Facebook doesn’t market itself the way traditional brands do. LinkedIn doesn’t flood you with promotional posts. Instagram doesn’t ask permission to use your content. They give you a stage. You step onto it. You perform. You promote yourself.
And in doing so, you become their marketer.

That is Customer-centric Marketing in its purest form.

Why This Isn’t About Social Media (But Everything to Do With It)

When people hear this argument, they often say, “Sure, but that’s social media. We’re not Facebook.”
That’s exactly the problem.

You don’t need to be Facebook to use the same strategy. You just need to understand what Facebook actually built.

Facebook isn’t an ad company. Ad agencies sell ads. Facebook built an ecosystem of human behavior where ads happen to exist. That distinction matters. In a Senate hearing, when Mark Zuckerberg was asked how Facebook makes money if it’s free, his response was famously simple: “Ads, Senator.”

That answer was technically correct—and strategically misleading.

Facebook makes money because it orchestrates the largest, most persistent, self-renewing engine of user-generated content ever created. Ads are merely the toll booth on a highway of human self-promotion.
Most businesses are still trying to buy billboards.

Customer-Centric Marketing Is About Control—Not Chaos

There’s a persistent fear among leadership teams that once you “let customers drive,” you lose control. That engagement becomes unpredictable. That messaging becomes diluted. That brand consistency erodes.

The opposite is true.

Customer-centric systems are not uncontrolled. They are designed. And design is where leverage lives.

The secret isn’t hoping customers talk about you. The secret is understanding why they talk—and then engineering levers that guide behavior without forcing it.

A Real Example: Only Fans Insider Magazine (From Zero to 20.2 Million Reads)

When I launched Only Fans Insider Magazine in May of 2025, I didn’t have an industry network. I didn’t have a warm list. I didn’t have partnerships. I didn’t have a marketing budget.

I knew one creator from years earlier. That was it.

On May 31 and June 1, we published two user-generated articles. Two.

That “magazine,” with no audience and no promotion, cleared 78,000 readers almost immediately.

Seven months later, the platform surpassed 20.2 million article reads. Average read time exceeded eleven minutes. Average pages per session crossed four. Those are metrics most media companies chase for years.
I spent zero dollars on ads.

That wasn’t luck. And it wasn’t volume. It was leverage.

The Truth About Why People Publish Content

Here’s the part most marketers avoid saying out loud: people do not publish content because they love brands.

They publish because they want visibility.

They want credibility. They want proof. They want something tangible they can share with their audience, their peers, their clients, or their employers. They want a signal that says, this matters.

Once you accept that self-promotion is not a flaw—but a feature—Customer-centric Marketing becomes mechanical instead of mystical.

The real question shifts from “How do we get more content?” to “How do we give our customers more reasons to promote themselves through us?”

Lever One: Aspirational Status

In July, I introduced something that made traditional marketers deeply uncomfortable: a Cover Model of the Month.

The first recipient was Viktoria Winslow. Her article had already cleared over 200,000 reads. Instead of letting that success fade into analytics dashboards, I turned it into recognition. A title. A visual asset. A public signal.

The result wasn’t subtle.

Other creators noticed. Submissions increased. Promotion intensified. Quality improved. Not because anyone was instructed to try harder—but because aspiration entered the system.

Status is one of the oldest motivators in human behavior. Digital platforms that ignore it leave growth on the table.

Lever Two: Competitive Energy Without Conflict

Aspiration alone isn’t enough. People don’t just want recognition—they want comparison. That’s where the Readers’ Choice Awards came in.

With a simple voting mechanism, behavior changed instantly. Creators didn’t just promote their articles anymore—they mobilized their audiences. Fans voted. Subscribers shared. Communities rallied.

When winners were announced across multiple categories, another wave of engagement followed. Same content. New energy.

Nothing new was produced. Incentives changed. Levers were pulled.

Why “Repurposing Content” Is a Lazy Framework

Most marketing teams talk about “repurposing content.” It’s usually code for running out of ideas.

In Customer-centric Marketing, content doesn’t need to be repurposed—it needs to be re-activated.

Every new recognition extends the lifespan of existing content. Every badge, award, or title gives customers a fresh reason to share again. Each share brings a new audience into the ecosystem.

I don’t repurpose content. My customers do—because it benefits them to do so.

That’s not repurposing. That’s compounding.

Recognition Loops Are the Real Growth Engine

The true power of Customer-centric Marketing emerges when recognition becomes cyclical.

A customer publishes.
They promote.
They’re recognized.
That recognition increases their status.

Higher status motivates further participation.

Each cycle deepens emotional investment. Each loop strengthens the association between the customer’s success and your platform.

This is why paid marketing becomes optional. When designed correctly, engagement fuels itself.

Why Traditional Media—and Most “Digital Magazines”—Fail Here

Traditional media operates on supply and consumption. Journalists produce. Audiences consume. Sharing is encouraged but not essential.

Even most so-called digital magazines today are simply print logic uploaded to the internet. Static pages. No identity. No feedback loops. No status. No incentive beyond passive readership.

They missed the point entirely.

Social platforms didn’t win because they published more content. They won because they made publishing personally valuable.

What This Means for Your Business

If your marketing strategy still revolves around posting on social media and hoping something sticks, you don’t understand what social media actually is.

Your greatest marketing asset isn’t your brand voice. It isn’t your content calendar. It isn’t your ad budget.

It’s your existing customers—and their desire to be seen.

Customer-centric Marketing is not about shouting louder. It’s about designing systems where customers pull attention toward themselves—and bring your business with them.

That’s what levers do.
That’s what platforms do.

That’s what most companies still haven’t figured out.

I’m Joseph Haecker—Editor-in-Chief of Only Fans Insider Magazine, The Realtor Magazine, Open To Work Social, and a Fractional CMO. If your marketing still depends on producing more noise in an already saturated world, you’re overlooking the most powerful growth mechanism available to you.

Your customers are already motivated.

You just haven’t given them the levers.